I did something spontaneous a week ago today. I am shocked how fast things can spread via social media. And even more surprised how fast the story has changed in just ONE week. Within 24 hours of my wife and children posting THIS photo ….we were being told it had gone viral. My kids were using terms an old dad like me is not familiar with, such as; 70,000 notes on tumblr, favorited on twitter, re-tweated, shared etc… Friends were reporting they were seeing it posted on Buzzfeed, Redneck sites and other random sites, most have the story twisted (because of how my daughter worded it on her own tumblr blog). Thus the story ……

This is the REAL story behind the short-shorts!

I know the world has varying degrees of what is modest and what is not when it comes to clothing. In our family we have pretty definite modesty guidelines; No mid-drift or low-cut shirts, no short-shorts, short skirts and we even go as far as saying no sleeveless shirts unless playing sports or on the beach. Having raised four daughters and three sons, I’m a bit protective. Some may call me old fashion, but I call it “A Dad who loves his daughters” (and sons too) I know some of you may be rolling your eyes and that’s okay, my daughter does it all the time.

I’m a firm believer that the way we dress sends messages about us, and it influences the way we and others act. (okay okay – I’m the first to admit I look like a redneck and I may say “crick” instead of “creek”) But that’s beside the point. My teenage daughter day after day continues to wear clothing that I, as her father, feel is inappropriate and immodest. Her mother and I feel the same about the importance of dressing modest. With that said, let’s move onto the night of the happening …….

In an effort to try to spend time with just the family we reserve our Monday evenings for just that. On this particular Monday, we decided to go out to eat (something we had not done in a very long time) and made plans for after dinner to use our pass-of-all passes to go miniature golfing at Trafalga, a nearby “fun center”. I heard my wife ask our daughter if she would please change into some longer shorts before leaving. She said “NO!” Instead of turning her response and disrespectful attitude into a major battle, I decided to make a “small” statement on how her short-shorts maybe aren’t as “cute” as she thinks!

I ran into my bedroom as the family was loading into the car. I grabbed some scissors and cut some old worn out pants into a set of short-shorts with the ends of the pockets hanging out the bottom. There was only about an inch of material below the crotch of the shorts. To add frosting to the cake, I looked down and noticed a shirt that my older daughter had given me for Father’s Day. At the time I thought “where the heck would I ever wear this?” Wow! I just found the perfect moment! I was a bit worried about going through with this, but felt that it was “OKAY” to make this statement in the privacy of our own home. I was certain that when my daughter saw me, that would be as far as it would have to go to make the point.

As I walked out to the car I could see my daughter and my son in the back seat with their heads down focused on their phones…needless to say they didn’t even notice. I stood by the open driver’s side door for a minute and even spoke to them, but their faces stayed focused on their phones, they didn’t even glance up. They had no clue of how I was dressed. I then walked about 50 feet in front of the car to meet my wife as she was walking back from feeding our animals. (hmmm….something’s wrong with this picture. Why was my wife feeding the animals and not one of our teens? Great question.)

My wife said, “What did they think? I told her that they hadn’t even noticed, but I was sure that they had by now. As I returned to the car, it was evident that their faces were still glued to their phones and had no idea of the spectacle that stood before them. Well, I had a decision to make. This little plotted scheme did not get noticed, so my thinking that this would end at home, quickly changed to… “I guess we’re taking it to the road now.”

As we were driving and nearly to the Hibachi House restaurant, I heard a camera sound. I looked to see what had just happened at the same time that my wife was being addressed by my children saying; “Why are you taking a picture of Dad?” Immediately my son said “Oh my gosh, look at dad!” My daughter then gave her disgusted look and said, “Why are you dressed like that?” followed by “Oh well, I don’t care.”

As we entered the restaurant we were greeted by many funny looking stares from a slightly small crowd. “Wow, at least it is a small group that I am making a fool of myself in front of” I thought. Then realized we knew two of the people. They laughed and said they couldn’t wait to tell our son-in-law what they had just seen. I gave a quick explanation. They laughed. My son, daughter and wife took a couple of pictures and posted them to social media. We ate dinner and it wasn’t a big deal.

My daughter didn’t seem to care however like I had hoped she would, so the question to myself was, “Do I let it fail or take it to the next level?” Take it to the next level of course!

“OK, let’s go miniature golfing” I said. The family laughed that I might just go through with that we had planned to do before dressing like a spectacle.

As we arrived to the small amusement park, we were met with many stares and pointing fingers as I walked through the lobby and to the miniature golf area. I tried to keep up with my daughter who had expressed that it didn’t bother her, but was not about to let me stay very close to her as we walked through the crowded room. Once we got our clubs and were waiting in line for our turn to start, a couple of girls were “acting” like one was taking a picture of the other when in fact they were lining themselves up for a “Kodak Moment” …of Me! My daughter then being bold said, “If you want a picture of him, just ask, I am sure he won’t mind.” They were embarrassed and continued to act like that wasn’t what they were doing.

Amongst all of the pointing and strange looks, we had a wonderful night of miniature golf and then headed for Artic Circle for milk shakes. As I pulled into a stall, my daughter said, “Uh, no! We are NOT going in!” I said “Sure we are, let’s go!” “No!” She said, “Let’s go through the drive up.” We went in, but she stayed in the car. She had had enough and did not want to go through any further embarrassment.

There was no “Dad I get it” or “Dad you’re the best…. thanks for that awesome lesson.” ☺ I don’t think my object lesson of “modest is hottest” made the statement I had intended. But no matter if social media gets the story mixed up and out of sorts, my daughter will always know that her dad loves her and cares about her enough to make a fool out of himself.

UPDATE 9/5/13: KSL News picked up the story and interviewed Scott LIVE on Browser 5.0. Click here to watch the news segment.

Today at church, I was asked to share a story in primary about PRAYER. I knew the toughest part about fulfilling this request would be to do – it – without – crying! Prayer has helped me through some pretty tough stuff in my life. It has been a means of comfort, inspiration and daily guidance. Several prayer stories raced through my head making it somewhat difficult to choose just one. The story I chose to share with those adorable 7-11 year olds was a story that took place last summer…..

My youngest daughter Myley, went on a three week LDS youth church historical tour called “Heritage Tours” They traveled through 26 states in 21 days. To document their experience, the one-hundred 18 year olds were asked to bring an actual hands-on camera, no cell phones were allowed. About half way through the tour, I got a frantic emergency phone call from Myley saying she had left her camera at their last stop…a truck stop…one state over from where she now was. She gave me the name and location of the truck stop where she last used it. I told her to pray that someone with integrity would find it. She said she already had. (thats music to a mother’s ears) The first thing I did was pray that somehow the camera would find it’s way back to Myley. Next I “googled” the truck-stop and called the number listed. A lady answered, I explained our dilemma, she put me on hold as she went to check the restroom, the adjourning fast food joint, and the lost-n-found. No luck. I thanked her and left my name and number just in case someone turned it in. For several days I continued to pray for the return of the camera and made several calls to the truck stop.

Three weeks later, a package addressed to Myley, was delivered. You guessed it! It was the camera along with a letter from the lady who found it. She said she found the camera in the restroom and could tell from the pictures that these were teens traveling across the nation on some kind of tour. She searched the truck stop looking for the girl in all the pictures. She said she thought about turning it in, but decided against it, not knowing if they would be honest and see that it got back to the rightful owner. She then took the quest upon herself. She searched the pictures one-by-one hoping for a clue of its owner…. then whaa-laaa…. she FOUND a clue!

While in Palmyra, New York at the Sacred Grove, Myley had taken a picture of her scriptures lying next to a special written blessing she had received. The lady was able to zoom in enough on that picture to see Myley’s name, her parents names and state in which she lived. She used those clues to begin her search. For the next two weeks she was very diligent in searching facebook and calling all the Mackintosh’s listed in the whitepages until she finally found someone who still used a “home phone” …..an uncle who gave her my husband’s cell …..then she made the call. My husband was elated at the news and knew Myley would be ecstatic. He asked if we could send her a reward…. she said, No, that she had had so much fun playing detective the past two weeks that her reward was being able to return it to the rightful owner. How cool is that!

It’s a great feeling knowing there are good people in this world who are honest and desire to do the right thing under any circumstance.

The letter also told Myley to look at the LAST picture on the camera …..Thank YOU Carol! And Thank you Heavenly Father who heard and answered the prayers of a teen and her mother.

For as long as I can remember I dreamt of marrying the man of my dreams and raising a large family. I was the youngest of five children and I always felt I got ripped off because I didn’t have younger siblings, therefore I grew up with the desire to have TEN kids so the “me” in the family would have older AND younger siblings. When I gave birth to child number 7, I told my husband it felt like TEN so I was counting it! That was kind of tongue-n-cheek, but seriously, my family felt complete when Skye, was born. My husband said it best “Skye’s the limit.” Yep, I was living the dream….great husband, a stay-at-home-mom raising a large family.

My dream of raising “perfect” children was also a dream come true!….my children are perfectly normal, perfectly challenged, perfectly unique, perfectly independent, perfectly stubborn and perfectly mine AND I love them more than life itself. They are the reason I color my hair, fight winkles, don’t get enough sleep……and “most” days I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. Hit me up on a “mom you don’t understand, I hate you” teenage-rage-kind-of-day and I’ll negotiate a child or two with you.

hmmm…my daughter just called ….flat tire….gotta go rescue her! Of course these things only happen when my husband is out-of-town, but it’s one of those DOable challenges.

I love my family that has grown to four in-laws and one grandson. I am thankful for the many challenges and trials that keep us on our toes….we are a better family because of the bumps in the road. God seems to know just what we need to get us out of our comfort zone and to learn what WE didn’t think we needed to learn. I take a deep breath because I know just-around-the-corner is another challenge to strengthen our ability to understand, forgive, show compassion, empathy and patience.

The lesson at the end of the day is always the same….LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY. That part is a piece of cake…..Easy. Done.

Like countless of other young girls growing up, my biggest hope and dream was to become a mother. Three months after marrying my best friend Scott we were expecting our first child…..followed by six more children over the next eleven years. My beautiful daughter Shandi and her husband Daniel imagined a similar life full of the pitter-patter of children. Their story is not unique, it may differ from mine….everyone has a different story to tell, a different journey to venture, a different picture to paint. Shandi and Daniel are an incredible couple who would love to add little handprints to their home! Please check out their blog and pass on their information to anyone who may be looking to place an infant or an older child in a loving home.

“Adoption is an act of unselfishness and bravery; it’s truly impeccable, and could change our lives forever. We couldn’t be more ecstatic to have a precious child come into our home and lives forever. We promise to raise this child with great dignity, to give the child hope and most of all unconditional love. We have been praying for many years to become parents and can’t wait for the opportunity to arise. Roads of life are never perfectly straight; we have turns, curves and detours. Life throws us all many obstacles that we must face and overcome. We will be by your side with strength, love, and kindness. We believe in you, the way we already believe in your baby. I know your baby will know each and every day how much they are loved, and we will do everything we can as parents to give your baby everything they need throughout their life.” Shandi and Dan

Like this:

Not only did I have the privilege of helping orchestrate Emmanuel Kelly’s first concert in the USA ……..

…..It was Eman’s FIRST concert ever!

The world knows Emmanuel for his inspiring X-Factor Australia audition clip “Imagine” by John Lennon, a clip that is just shy of 8 Million views on YouTube. The story of being born in Iraq under chemical warfare conditions resulting in Emmanuel and his older brother Ahmed born without limbs. The story is told of being found in a shoe box, rescued and placed in Mother Teresa’s orphanage to be raised by nuns. Emmanuel later tells us “being found in a shoe box” is a term used for abandoned. Across the way in Australia, founder of the Children First Foundation, Moira Kelly heard about these two adorable boys in Iraq. Emmanuel describes the first time seeing Moira entering the room; “It was like seeing an angel.” Of course she fell in love with the boys. After two years of red tape, Moira was finally able to bring the boys to her home in Australia and start them on their journey of surgeries, prosthetics and encouragement to follow their DrEaMs.

About three months ago I was exposed to the inspiring, tear jerker video clip on facebook and had to “share” it on my FB wall. I watched it over and over. A week later, my boss, author/speaker Kevin Hall called me with an assignment:…..to find Emmanuel Kelly! Kevin felt impressed to invite Emmanuel to sing at the Genshai Life Mastery Retreat in Coronado Island January 5-7. I found this a little more difficult than a previous assignment given only five days early to find Immaculée Ilibagiza, survivor of the Rwanda Genocide, author of “Left To Tell” and now living in New York City…It took only 3 days to get a reply response from Immaculée. (that’s another incredible story for another blog) Finding Emmanuel was a little tougher….not as much to go on….he is a minor, has not written a book, no speaking agent, no place of employment..all the leads I used to track down Immaculée, didn’t apply to Emmanuel. What I did have going for me was 30 years ago while attending school in Hawaii I met a news reporter, Rick Arden, from Australia who is still a news anchor for Channel 7 Perth. Perfect….if a news reporter was given the assignment to “find” someone….they would act like the world depended on it and get the job done. I shot Rick an email with my request and waited and waited and waited for a reply. hmmm…..plan B. I then emailed every news station in Australia and FINALLY got a response from ONE…ABC News giving me the info to his mother Moira’s foundation, which led to her contact info, which led to Kevin speaking to Moira on the phone for 30 minutes and a promise to have Emmanuel on a plane with his Godfather Peter to sing at the Genshai Life Mastery Retreat. Woot! Woot! Side note: the next day came the reply from Rick…thank you Rick, but one day late. 🙂

Once in Coronado it took only a fraction of a second to fall in love with the boy with the amazing voice, witty sense of humor and maturity beyond his teen years. Emmanuel “hung out” with the six teens at the retreat, five teens had won the opportunity to be there from entering an essay contest “Imagine If……” and the sixth teen was my daughter who was not eligible to enter the contest….just fortunate to come:) My husband and I were the lucky teen chaperones, therefore spent a lot of quality time with Emmanuel.

Little did we know that when we said our good-byes….it didn’t really mean good-bye. Through a fast series of events, the next week brought Emmanuel and his assistant Peter to stay in our home, and in only a few days we were able to not only orchestrate a facility to house a live concert for Emmanuel, but all the details needed to put on a concert…..thanks to Laurie Olson, industrial film director and my India traveling buddy, for using her magic to book the Scera Theater in Orem, Utah for not one, but TWO concerts.

Emmanuel was a joy to have in our home. Those that were able to see Emmanuel LIVE for his first ever Concert’ were privileged to be entertained by this talented, humorous, can-do-anything young man for 90 minutes.

My life has been forever touched by this amazing young man! My NEXT goal and personal assignment: To meet his AMAZING mother Moira Kelly.